Pebbles in the pond

Exfiltration Interruptus

Part 54 of the ongoing saga of The Great Being, the One Self that manifests as each of us

We have been following the experiences of two Agents of Cosmic Intelligence, Melchizedek and Layla, here on a mission that started in 200,000 BC. To infiltrate the Rebel forces on the planet, they walked into the near-dead bodies of Blu and Ska around 40,000 BC on the coast of northwestern Spain. Taken into the Rebel Stari-ki’s army, they have trekked southward to where they now face the Great Water at Gibraltar. Previous episodes.

Up to this point in the story, our Agents have not been conscious of their true identities. But while Stari-ki has been trying to wake them up to their Rebel identities, Blu and Ska are each having leak-through moments from their Agent identities. Ska, for example, senses he is a woman. And when Goma’s vessel telekinetically creates a temporary land bridge between Gibraltar and Africa, Blu somehow knows God is helping them. An unhappy Stari-ki insists the land bridge was no miracle, that it is instead a Rebel invention. Stari-ki then takes Blu aside and reveals the Rebel identities of Bluto and Scarlatta. Blu feels his first sense of foreboding about Stari-ki, and also feels he has found a way to hide such thoughts from Stari-ki. Time will tell.

The army stole out of camp in good order, leaving booby traps and carefully briefing the perimeter guards how to avoid them when they were the last to fall back. The toughest fighters went first, as there was no way of knowing what sorts of threats waited to greet them. Stari-ki had come to the conclusion that this planet, which Rebels had chosen to breed fighters on, was now being made as tough as possible by Command purposely setting Rebels at each other’s throats. That did not bode well for what awaited them on the continent across the water.

The women and children went next, then the bulk of the army — both groups heavily laden with possessions and not as prepared to fight immediately. When the army reached the beach and sensed that the rain here had eased off, there was an upsurge in morale, followed by shock and stillness when they suddenly saw the land bridge that wasn’t there before. Most of the women and some of the men fell to their knees and put their heads forward on the sand in deference to the great powers that had done this. Many women were crying in happiness and gratitude, and kissing their children, pointing and explaining to them the significance of the miracle.

Stari-ki had been too busy to pay attention to his own fleeting intuition that he should prepare everyone to realize the bridge was made by his allies up above, and was not a miracle. Now it would be harder to dislodge that thought and he didn’t know when he was going to get time for it. He beat himself up for that, which added to the cumulative effect of having not anticipated two surprise attacks. For good measure, he threw in that he was stupid to not see the attacks coming, since he should have known Command would want to toughen them up — and the best way would be to have the best fight the best. All of this hand-wringing reduced his effectiveness. Part of him said this to himself, but the dominant part of himself told that part to shut up and chose to remain angry at himself and therefore at everything and everybody else.

He pushed people roughly forward. “Get up! Get moving! Keep moving! No more stopping. The next one I see stop, I will kill!” He didn’t yell as loudly as would have given him pleasure because he didn’t want to be heard by the encircling army. His army got moving and the first troops could now be seen cautiously testing their footing on the muddy, gritty land bridge. It was very narrow as it left the beach and then looked like it might widen out there in the water. The further they went the more the rain lessened. A hundred feet out on the bridge, there was no rain at all.

Back where the rain was still pelting, the perimeter forces were now stealthily retreating from the enemy, hopefully without his knowledge. This exfiltration process continued smoothly from that point, and even as new troops saw the bridge and were transfixed, pushers were set up to prod them along with the warning of what Stari-ki had threatened. It had taken nearly two hours but now almost the whole army was on the bridge and the first light of dawn could be seen on the Eastern horizon.

Just then a loud uproar was heard and everyone knew what it meant. The enemy must have sent a routine probe and found that the army was moving out. Now they were all coming.